Voting by the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Thoroughbred and Standardbred Election Committees has been tallied and the CHRHF Class of 2024 is now confirmed.
Previously, the Board of the CHRHF agreed the Class of 2024 would be comprised of six inductees per breed and was also provided the option for a Nomination Committee to use only five categories, with two inductees selected in one category, in order to meet a total of six inductees per breed. The 20-person Election Committee for each breed voted on the list of finalists in the selected categories. The following people and horses are named to the CHRHF Class of 2024 which will be formally inducted in a ceremony on Wednesday, August 7th.
Class of 2024 – Thoroughbred Inductees
Glen Todd – Builder
Starship Jubilee – Female Horse
Patrick Husbands – Jockey
Channel Maker – Male Horse
Danny Vella – Trainer
Richard Grubb – Veteran
Born on December 20, 1946 in British Columbia, the late GLEN TODD, fell in love with horse racing as a child, attending the races with his father who had met Glen’s mother at Hastings racecourse in 1939. “There is a lot of history of racing in my family,” he said. Todd quickly immersed himself in everything about preparing a racehorse, educating himself from the shedrow up. Todd was an exceptional businessman who took over his father Jack and mother Eileen’s Pacific Group of Companies, founded in 1954. Todd began training horses at Hastings in the early 1970s, doing so until 1985. In 2011, he won the Sovereign Award in a tie with Donver Stables for Canada’s Outstanding Owner. Throughout his life he was an owner of hundreds of racehorses. Behind the racing headlines, Todd worked tirelessly to promote and improve the B.C. racing industry. In 2009, he was part of the B.C. Horse Racing Industry Management Committee which was formed to revitalize the sport and put it on firmer financial ground. He also extended an interest-free $1-million loan to fund purse money and keep races going at east Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse over the summer of 2021, and at the time he said he was not looking for accolades, just that he wanted to keep jobs in place and horses running. He has been described as an owner, trainer, breeder, builder, innovator, communicator, betting shop owner, employer, mentor, and friend.
Throughout her career STARSHIP JUBILEE was one of the top race mares in North America, despite her $6,500 yearling purchase price. The filly’s honors and accomplishments were numerous including being named the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year and the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Champion Female Turf Horse in Canada. In addition to being a 2-time G1 winner and 6-time graded stakes winner in Canada, she accumulated over $2 million in purse earnings. Most impressively, Starship Jubilee is the only horse ever to win the G1 E.P. Taylor and the G1 Woodbine Mile, the latter of which saw her defeat male horses. Starship Jubilee was also highly successful in the United States winning the G2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga, the G2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs, and is the only 3 time winner of the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.
PATRICK HUSBANDS became one of the most popular and productive jockeys in Canadian racing history during his 30 plus years riding at Woodbine. Before emigrating to Canada in 1994 from his native Barbados, Husbands had already enjoyed considerable success in his country of birth as a Champion rider and the youngest jockey to win the prestigious Gold Cup. Husbands went on to capture eight Sovereign Awards as Canada’s Champion jockey from 1999-2014. His initial popularity came among the local Bajan community but quickly grew to universal acceptance with each passing race victory and ensuing championship season. Of Husbands’ countless achievements, one of the most noted came in 2003 with his expert handling of Triple Crown winner and future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Inductee, Wando, for the late Gustav Schickendanz and trainer Mike Keogh, both Honoured Members of the Hall. Additionally, CHRHF Honoured Member, Mark Casse has been a strong supporter of Husbands, with Hall of Fame horse Sealy Hill, 2023 King’s Plate winner Paramount Prince as well as Queen’s Plate winner Lexie Lou, who was inducted to the CHRHF in 2019. Throughout his spectacular career Husbands has won 3,630 times earning $178,477,012 USD through the end of 2023.
Bred in Ontario by Ivan Dalos, CHANNEL MAKER, is a Canadian and US Champion and multiple Grade 1 winner. Channel Maker was a fan favorite during his eight seasons of racing that began in 2016 in Ontario under the tutelage of trainer Danny Vella, also an inductee of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2024. Later trained by Bill Mott, Channel Maker was owned at various times throughout his career by a combination of interests including Joey G Thoroughbreds, Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, R. A. Hill Stable and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing. Channel Maker is the 3rd richest Canadian-bred racehorse of all time with earnings over $3.9 million. He raced an incredible 8 years, from age 2-9, and set the record for the most Breeders Cup starts by any single horse – a record 6 times. He won the 2017 Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion 3-year-old colt and the 2020 Eclipse Award as North America’s top turf male. In 2020, the durable gelding swept 2 prestigious Grade 1 races – the Sword Dancer S and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, to become an Eclipse Award winner as Turf Male Horse. Following his retirement from racing in 2023, Channel Maker was donated by his connections to Old Friends Retirement Farm in Kentucky where he now resides.
Conditioner, DANNY VELLA, was twice named Sovereign Award winning trainer, and has scored one hundred and thirty-five (135) career stakes win. He won the coveted Queen’s Plate twice in his career, in 1994 with Basqueian and in 2012 with Strait of Dover. Vella began his winning ways in 1985 but his breakthrough came in 1991 when he started training for the stable of Frank Stronach. Early successes came with Hero’s Love in the E. P. Taylor stakes and Explosive Red in the G1 Hollywood Derby. In 1994, Vella captured nineteen Woodbine stakes in an outstanding season headed by Queen’s Plate winner Basqueian, King Ruckus, Champion Sprinter and Honky Tonk Tune. Fifteen more Woodbine stakes were won in 1996 giving Vella fifty-eight added money wins in an outstanding three-year stretch. Other stakes winners trained by him include Cash Ticket, Phantom Light, Knights Templar, Field Commission, and most recently, Alpha Bettor. In 2012, Vella transformed Wally and Terry Leong’s Strait of Dover into a poly track winner with a victory in the Marine. Vella’s statistics during a training career that concluded in 2022 include 5,740 starts (869-841-7) and earnings of $39,438,727.
Raised in Ridgeway, ON, veteran category inductee RICHARD GRUBB began his riding career in 1966. At the age of 16, he won the first race he ever rode as a professional followed by 1,606 more career trips to the winners’ circle, before concluding his riding career in 1989. In 1967 he was Canada’s leading Jockey with 230 victories. That same year he won seven straight races on an eight-race card, a feat never duplicated. Grubb rode some of the country’s most time-honoured stars including Mary of Scotland, and Rouletabille and 1968 Horse of the Year, Viceregal. Among his stakes wins was the 25th edition of the Manitoba Derby in 1973 aboard Zaca Spirit. During his career, Grubb won over 100 major races and was presented the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award in 1997. Following his retirement from racing in 1989, he became a senior Steward with the Ontario Racing Commission, a position in which he served for 24 years.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
